Tenant found living with dog feces all over floor of a Norman apartment

NORMAN, Okla. - A foul smell leads a Norman landlord to a gruesome discovery at his apartment complex.

A tenant and his dog were living in dog feces.

The apartment owner says he did a security walk through because other residents in the area were complaining of a smell.

But, he says he's almost more concerned about the dog`s well-being than the damages to the apartment.

“I immediately smelt something,” said Stephen Teel, the owner of the apartment complex. “It kind of hit me in the face.”

Teel says it was filthy and he knew the tenant had a dog, but he wasn't expecting the mess.

“When he pulled the dog out, I saw the feces that was all over the carpet,” said Teel. “I just asked him, I guess your dog isn't potty trained and he said he was working on it.”

Teel says in his 20 plus years of being a landlord, he's seen this one too many times and he's fed up.

“I would love if our animal control had more power to take care of these situations,” said Teel. “The dog obviously is eating well, you can tell by the room, but the dog was fat and seemed happy, it was just kind of a disgusting apartment to live in.”

However, Norman Animal Control says in these cases; the animals are considered property.

They do not have the right to go on to the complex`s property unless the dog is in imminent danger.

Teel hopes other landlords use this as a lesson to stay on top of spraying for pest control. He says then you can catch these instances earlier.

Teel says he's looking into how they missed this one.

“I`m not sure how my employees missed it, but the smell is so bad that they should have noticed it even if they didn't go in that room,” said Teel. “We could have followed up with a notice to walk through and maybe caught this earlier.”

Teel says they are evicting the tenant and he will have to pay for all of the damages.